Browser Hijacking Hard to Fix but Easy to Avoid
© 2004 Reprint by permission only. All rights reserved.
by Matt Hyatt

Imagine yourself sitting down in front of your computer to surf the web. You open your web browser expecting to see your favorite home page, but instead you’re confronted by a strange new page with links to online casinos and adult websites. Before you can sneeze, an advertisement for Viagra appears. Clicking the Home button spawns two more popup ads. Surprise! Your browser has been hijacked.

Browser hijacking occurs when a malicious website causes a computer to persistently open other unwanted websites. This is often done by surreptitiously changing the user’s default home page, causing one or more generally undesirable web pages to appear every time the web browser is started. The problem isn’t new, but it has gotten a lot worse as programmers have learned newer and more complex ways to attack unprotected computers. Recent hijacking programs can embed themselves in a computer so thoroughly that they can be extremely difficult to remove without special software and expertise.

So how do you know if your browser has been hijacked? If your default home page has changed and you can’t get it to change back, that’s a pretty good sign that you’ve been hit. You’ll find that restarting your browser program or your computer won’t solve the problem. Other symptoms include numerous random popup browser windows, slow computer performance, and strange error messages when you try to open your web browser.

Fixing a hijacked browser can be a long, tedious process. If your browser has already been hijacked, you may want to hire an expert or roll up your sleeves to take on your new part time job as a disaster recovery specialist. But before you do, there are some fairly simple things you can try that may get you back on track without a lot of fuss:

1. Download AdAware from www.lavasoftusa.com. It’s free and it does a great job of removing most problems that cause popup ads and other adware. Make sure you download any available updates when you run the program. Quarantine anything the program flags as suspicious.
   
2. Download and apply all available critical updates from windowsupdate.microsoft.com.
   
3. Download and install Google toolbar from toolbar.google.com. This free program works with Internet Explorer and adds several nifty features, including a very effective popup blocker.

If you try these things and still find you’re having problems, you’re probably in for the long haul. Further troubleshooting will involve plenty of research and a good dose of computer expertise. If you’re comfortable with making changes to the Windows registry and renaming, deleting, and restoring system files, here are some quick tips to get started:

Backup your system first – deleting the wrong file or making the wrong registry change may render your system inoperable. Download Hijack This from www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn and read the tutorial at www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/htlogtutorial.html. Also check out Spybot Search and Destroy from www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd. Lastly, be sure to visit www.computercops.biz and review the computer security forums for lots of helpful information.

Luckily, avoiding a hijacked browser is a lot easier than fixing one. Many of the same practices that help prevent viruses are also effective measures against hijacking programs. Use the latest version of your favorite antivirus software and keep it current. Keep your Windows updates current. Rogue popup ads are primary sources of malicious code and a common gateway to hijacking programs – avoid clicking on the ads themselves by closing the popup with the X in the corner of the window. Together, these simple procedures will go a long way towards keeping your browser just that – yours.

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